Police: Teen father arrested in Northern California for biting nose off 1-month old infant

Shelley Jordan

In this March 13, 2014 photo released by the Solano County Sheriff's Office is Joshua Cooper. The teen father in California is under arrest after police say he bit the nose off his 1-month-old son because he was frustrated with the infant's crying. Fairfield police say 18-year-old Joshua Cooper was being held Friday in jail on suspicion of child cruelty and aggravated mayhem. Police say they received a call Thursday by a distraught woman who said her baby was bleeding from his nose.

Image Credit: AP Photo/Solano County Sheriff's Office

March 14, 2014 - 4:29 PM

FAIRFIELD, Calif. - A teen father in Northern California is under arrest after police say he bit the nose off his 1-month-old son because he was frustrated with the infant's crying.

Joshua Cooper, 18, was being held Friday in the Solano County Jail on suspicion of child cruelty and aggravated mayhem, Fairfield police said in a news release.

Police said they received a call Thursday at 8 a.m. by a distraught woman who said her baby was bleeding from his nose.

Doctors later determined the child suffered a skull fracture, a brain hemorrhage and that one third of the child's nose had been severed.

The child is in stable condition at Oakland Children's Hospital.

Police say they are still trying to determine how the skull fracture and brain hemorrhage occurred.

OPINION At least part of me wasn’t sure I should write this, given what happened last time. It was August 15, 2003 and like many Thursdays before it, I was scratching around for a column idea. The summer newsroom